The present invention relates to an electronic position sensing device and in particular to digitizer pads, also referred to as bit pads and graphics input tablets, capable of three parameter sensing.
Various types of transducer devices are known whereby various parameters may be measured. Such sensor devices are essential to provide data inputs to electronic circuits and other devices to allow the electronic or electromechanical device to perform its intended function. The present invention is a sensor device, referred to as a digitizer pad, which presents a surface area against which a point contact can be made. The sensor is configured to locate the point of contact in relationship to a predefined linear or non-linear potential field. Such spatial location sensing may be provided in any suitable coordinate system such as an orthogonal coordinate system or a polar coordinate system. Further, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, a third parameter, namely pressure, can be sensed to provide a digitizer pad capable of sensing two spatial parameters and one pressure parameter to provide a three parameter sensing digitizer pad.
Such three parameter digitizer pads can be used in signature analysis by generating samples at a plurality of points as the signature is made where each sample includes two dimensional spatial information and pressure information to indicate the varying pressure used by the person signing his signature. Such digitizer pads could also provide parameter inputs for computer games, keyboards, graphics display inputs and the like.
Heretofore, digitizer pads have, at most, included spacial location sensing in only two dimensions without the ability to sense pressure. Furthermore, prior digitizer pads have been highly complex and very expensive thereby limiting their usefulness in most applications. By contrast, the present invention provides a digitizer pad which is very accurate, and yet is inexpensive and easy to construct. Additionally, the present invention includes a pressure sensitive semiconducting ply as described in connection with U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,238 issued Feb. 9, 1982, which patent is hereby incorporated by reference. This semiconducting ply enables measurement of a pressure parameter in addition to the two dimensional spacial parameters of the point of contact on the digitizer pad.